30 Oct 2014 05:07:01
Don't understand why anyone will be happy with a draw at city right now. I will view it as two points dropped for sure. They are in terrible form, West Ham and Newcastle beat them convincingly and just like us they have a shaky defense. At least we are coming on the back of a decent defensive performance against Chelsea and on a higher morale. And it looks like Rooney will be fit. They have Silva and Toure as doubts for the game.

There is no better time to play City than this. With the quality of Di Maria, Januzaj, Rvp, Rooney and if fit Falcao, and a revitalized Fellaini we must look at putting Mangala under pressure and anything other than a win would be slightly dissapointing.

1.) 30 Oct 2014
Agreed that City are off form but i'd still be surprised if we won. City jave enough quality to change a game at any time.

2.) 30 Oct 2014
@Joeee

Sure they do, but so do we!

Especially if Silva and/or Toure don't play anything less than a win will be points dropped.

The league, apart from Chelsea is quite poor this year. City, Arsenal, Liverpool are all playing poor and are hit and miss and not too better than us. We should be looking at getting a strong consistent run together and 2nd place could be areal possibility this season.

3.) 30 Oct 2014
Silva and toure will play as will aguerro. And these three always get the better of us no matter what form they're in. Up to us to have a plan to out score them and defend well, which we haven't been doing this season.

4.) 30 Oct 2014
30 Oct 2014 09:45:38
Agree we should have a right go at them on Sunday, but as our resident positivity benchmark nomidfield says City seem to have the beating of us at the moment and can turn it on at any time.

I think it will be a cracking game that could go either way, but if we lose I wouldn't overreact (I am aware people will and tell us how many points Moyes had at the same stage last season and how LVG isn't as good because of this) but we will certainly put up more of a fight than we did last year, and definitely more so than we put in in the derby at Old Trafford.

5.) 30 Oct 2014
I think the City match could go anyway especially as derby's tend to ignore form.
We have a good chance although our away form is not Great this year.what better way to change that than at City followed by Arsenal 2 games later!
Will be interesting to see where Rooney slots in but I imagine it will be for Mata with same team other than that.

6.) 30 Oct 2014
I genuinely don't have a clue how we will do on Sunday. There is no better time to play City, but they will be thinking the same about us.

I'm looking for a positive performance, if we get a pasting by being negative I will be really disappointed, but if we have a go I can't see that happening. I think it will be a goal fest and whoever has the most balls will win it.

7.) 30 Oct 2014
@Nomidfield

This is a completely different United team to the one that City seemingly have the beating of.

Different left back, center back and entire midfield. Strikers are the only ones that are the same, if Falcao plays, even that will be different.

8.) 30 Oct 2014
Manchester United should look to win every game. However I don't agree that when going to the home of the Champions a draw is disappointing.

There seems to be some unrealistic expectations being set for LvG this Sunday, almost don't win and it isn't good enough. I expect our team to go to win but if we got a draw I do not see that as derogatory to what LvG is doing.

9.) 30 Oct 2014
With LVG we are set up to win every game. It will be no different against City and we will continue to attack in numbers. I think it will be much higher scoring than the Chelsea game. It will be tight and I expect that City will bring their A game regardless of form.

10.) 30 Oct 2014
Gds
Whats with all the snide comments ?
Everyone of your post seem to be a sly dig at someone

11.) 30 Oct 2014
I am with mmid on this it will be a tight game but we will lose. A draw is a great result. Not many teams get anything there even the teams who are supposedly our competition for 4th place. BTW i ask posted in that early pre season pole that we would finish 3rd and still believe that and arsenal 4th.

12.) 30 Oct 2014
I had arsenal chelsea city united. Unless arsenal sign costa i'm sunk

13.) 30 Oct 2014
LOL

Jred i think you can safely rule out Arsenal chances of winning the league. I don'y think Chelsea will get chased down by Arsenal. I had City, Chelsea, United and Arsenal and predicted Liverpool will have a difficult season, which some people here completely disagreed.

14.) 30 Oct 2014
With no Europe, massive investment, a hyped up manager (taking away my now disdain for the man, initially I was excited about him), world class players with a point to prove, I thought we would win the league. Alas I was being over optimistic. Second is likely now but I am very concerned how shattered we look having had so few games, we need to get this sorted before the Xmas fixture congestion. Frankly we can't play much worse with the players we have, so to still be in touch despite results and performances it is a miracle, things have got to start clicking soon.

I just can't believe how poor everyone bar Chelsea have been, and being brutally honest Chelsea haven't been that great having watched most of their games - Costa has just been clinical, and Hazard has been on fire.

15.) 30 Oct 2014
Beast

Chelsea have stayed away from Injuries have a very settled back four that plays every week together and just a very solid team across the pitch with a couple of players having blinders so far.

I actually thought we were the better team in the first half against them but once they get ahead they are extremely difficult to break down and retain the ball very well and have tons of pace in the likes hazard and willian to hit you on the break whilst you are pushing up and chasing the game.

Just a very solid group of players assembled and good across the pitch.

16.) 30 Oct 2014
@Red Man

Why is it unrealistic? We are being managed by Louis Van Gaal, he is no Moyes and then there's the little matter of a 150mil worth of investment. We need to get out of the mid table mentality that Moyes apparently set.

Van Gaal has a much better side than the one Sir Alex had in his last season and he managed to win at the Etihad against a stronger City side on much better form. I bet Sir Alex didn't go there with a "draw would be a good result" mentality.

No better time to play City and we should be able to beat them. It will be the first sign of the progress and improvement Van Gaal has made from last year. Winning a big game, something Moyes never did.Isn't that what a manager with a proven track record is supposed to deliver?

17.) 30 Oct 2014
@GCU

Agreed on Chelsea. A well oiled machine with a rock solid foundation. You could literally feel Jose's philosophy/method/style being implemented from day 1 when he joined. They still look like they can up it a gear or two if they need to.

18.) 30 Oct 2014
Exactly GCU, couldn't agree more. They are tactically very astute normally, (Mourinho made a big mistake dropping off against us), experienced and organised. They are definitely beatable and haven't set the world alight with great football.

In a couple of years with the correct midfield general and CB leader signed we will be able to dominate again, so long as our prospects develop and LVG's plan happens. We have great foundations.

We benefited from everybody playing badly a couple of seasons ago, I think it will be Chelsea's turn this year unfortunately.

19.) 30 Oct 2014
REDFAITH

It is not unreasonable to aim or to plan to win a game, if it is away at the home of the Champions who beat us quite easily home and away last season then to expect to win is folly. This seems to be a case of setting an over expectation, to then enable people to criticise LvG for failing to win one particular game.
Manchester United go out with the aim to win games even away to City but to expect to win is arrogant.
I think we should step back from setting LvG short term demands game by game because otherwise you would be back on here on Sunday night saying he had let us down, should we not win. We might win, but it's a game of football and fact is they won the championship so we have some way to go to get back to that level.

20.) 30 Oct 2014
I think a point would be a good result but i don't see why this squad can't beat city, newcastle and west ham did.
Ddg, shaw, rojo, herrera mata, rooney, di maria, adan, falcao rvp. To name but a few.

For me top 4 is a must with this squad, i think fergy would win the league with it.

Imo we have underperformed so far although many seem to disagree .

But i honestly think this group of players is capable of beating city something i couldn't say last year

21.) 30 Oct 2014
30 Oct 2014 21:51:10
Jred,

It wasn't a sly dig, it was banter at nomidfield based on a post from last week, nothing sly, just humour, but thanks for asking.

22.) 30 Oct 2014
Jred

I think we are capable of beating City, especially given the unity of purpose, organisation and fight we showed last weekend. Agree that we couldn't say that last year. Whether we will win is totally open because it's a game of football. We have a far better chance now than last season, of that I am certain.

23.) 31 Oct 2014
Redman
After a 150 mil spent i would hope so

24.) 31 Oct 2014
Jred

£65m spent last year and we still got thrashed

25.) 31 Oct 2014
@Red Man

And is that the standard we are going to judge by? Oh he is doing marginally better than Moyes so its fine?

26.) 31 Oct 2014
REDFAITH

No and you know that. My point there was that spending the money is only part of it.
LvG is not my first choice, Klopp was, but LvG is doing the right things unlike his predecessor. I might not have agreed with the LvG appointment, although I did far far more than Moyes, however his gravitas merits time. What manager worth his salt will come, if as Beast suggests we sacked him now?
I see signs, like the never give up attitude from last week, that things are improving and will give him time. It is the next manager we should be thinking about, lining up a Pep or Klopp, but stop bickering about LvG. The players clearly believe and I am happy to go along with him as things stand but I do want to see it improve. LvG knows the standards set and we can judge later in the season if he is meeting them.

27.) 31 Oct 2014
I agree sacking him would be silly and absolutely the wrong move but we also need to be a lot more careful now and scrutinize what is going on. I see far too many of the same negatives that were under Moyes and very few positives to feel comfortable at all, especially after spending so much, yet not addressing immediate needs with class players.

To me, it seems as though the players are relaxed because the bar has been lowered, just getting into the CL is OK now and due to LVG's previous record there isn't the intense scrutiny from the media that was there with Moyes but there will be if things become worse, its all hanging in the balance at the moment.

I agree we need to judge around January and if we are comfortably in the UCL places he will have obviously done a good job. Regardless though, if Klopp is available in the summer Ed Woodward who is clearly a fan of his has a difficult decision to make, and he has shown himself to be ruthless in the past with Moyes so you never know.

28.) 31 Oct 2014
Redman
I fail to see what your point is with the 65 mil comment other than a dig a moyes.
To be honest i don't think last seasons games against city are of any relevance when discussing the out come of the game on sunday.